Oleeo Means Diversity?
When you make a word up it can be defined any way you see fit.
Jeanette Maister, VP of Americas with Oleeo, joins Chad & Cheese for a drive-by interview. She talks brand, rebranding, events, QR codes, diversity, bias, recommending not matching? and much more.
Brought to you by our friends at NEXXT.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION sponsored by:
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Intro:
Hide your kids, lock the doors, you're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark, buckle up boys and girls, it's time for the Chad and Cheese podcast!
Jeanette:
I just want you to realize my feet don't touch the ground right now.
Joel:
Aww yeah, should we lower that too?
Jeanette:
We're good.
Joel:
Is the weather different down where you are?
Jeanette:
It's totally different.
Joel:
Totally Different?
Jeanette:
Two degrees cooler.
Chad:
You-
Joel:
How tall are you?
Chad:
Definitely have to be the shortest CEO who's been on the show. So this is a first. This is a first.
Jeanette:
Well, I'm technically not the CEO. I'm just head of all of America. So...
Chad:
All the... So you're just head of the Americans.
Jeanette:
Yeah. Head of the Americas.
Joel:
How tall are you?
Jeanette:
Four nine and three quarters.
Joel:
Holy cow.
Jeanette:
Can't forget the three quarters. [crosstalk 00:01:20].
Joel:
Your heels are at least 10 inches high.
Jeanette:
Yeah so.
Chad:
Let's make this clear If you head up the Americas... If you head up the biggest market in the world, you are the CEO.
Jeanette:
You can, you can go ahead and call our CEO and founder.
Chad:
VP Americas.
Jeanette:
Actually it's wrong, he's actually managing director [crosstalk 00:01:39] although I hear-
Chad:
Oh, managing director.
Jeanette:
Managing director and like other tech companies is a different title. So VP's the better one, but I come from Wall Street and managing director. That's like the top.
Chad:
That's pretty big shit. Yeah. Who are we talking to?
Jeanette:
Oh yeah. Who am I?
Chad:
Hi everyone. This is the Chad and Cheese podcast.
Joel:
Welcome here. Live from HR Tech.
Chad:
Live!
Joel:
I'm your cohost Joel Cheesman-
Chad:
And I'm Chad Sowash.
Joel:
So glad to be here. And who are we interviewing today, Chad?
Chad:
Well, it's Jeanette, right?
Jeanette:
Jeanette.
Chad:
Jeanette Meister.
Jeanette:
Maister, like the month of May.
Chad:
Maister, Maister, damn it.
Jeanette:
Get it right. Not spelled with an "E," "M-A." [crosstalk 00:02:13].
Chad:
See... Yeah. I thought I had the Meister. You might know the Maister.
Jeanette:
There you go!
Chad:
Okay. VP of the Americas managing director and or VP of the Americas for-
Joel:
Oreo.
Chad:
For Oleeo.
Jeanette:
Oleeo.
Joel:
Oleeo, sorry.
Jeanette:
Can't say it without smiling!
Joel:
Oleeo!
Chad:
I can't say it without smiling, because you're smiling at me the entire time.
Jeanette:
Well, you know I'm a smiler.
Joel:
You know what a funny fact about me?
Jeanette:
Okay.
Joel:
My neighborhood is at the cross streets of 96th and Oleo road.
Chad:
It's not spelled that way.
Jeanette:
But how is it spelled?
Joel:
It's spelled O-L-I-O.
Jeanette:
Well, so, that is actually the original word that our name came from.
Chad:
It's not an English word is it?
Jeanette:
You know, if you go back centuries...
Chad:
I'm just saying it's not in the common vernacular-
Jeanette:
It is not. Because you can't come up with a name. So we've rebranded a year and a half ago and you can't come up with a name that's in the English dictionary because you can't get the .com for that. Right? So... You got to tweak it a little bit.
Chad:
Yeah, I guess [crosstalk 00:03:10] spend a shit ton of cash to be able to get that .com.
Joel:
If you're listening out there. Feel free to Google Oleeo.
Jeanette:
Oleeo. O-L double E-O.
Chad:
O-L double E-O.
Joel:
Please tell me you're a .com and not .ai...
Jeanette:
We're a .com.
Joel:
Okay. You're-
Jeanette:
We're a .com.
Joel:
You're ahead of the game now.
Jeanette:
Yes.
Chad:
You come up with your own name-
Jeanette:
Then you can get the .com.
Chad:
So you get the .com. Chadcheese.com. Nobody had the Chad Cheese.
Jeanette:
Amazing.
Chad:
Yes. I know.
Jeanette:
And you didn't have to spell it weird at all?
Chad:
Nope. Barely.
Joel:
We're genius marketers.
Jeanette:
Seriously.
Chad:
So give us-
Jeanette:
And you have the cool shirts but not in women's cuts-
Joel:
Oh, shit, here we go.
Jeanette:
Which we have to do something about that-
Chad:
Just like I said, my wife looks hot in this tee shirt, okay? So, I would say that's a women's cut if she looks great in it. And I love when she wears a tee shirt. So, tell us about Oleeo. You just changed brands not too long ago, right? New brand, new colors. Yeah.
Jeanette:
So, new brand. We used to be WCN, which was not a radio station out of Chicago-
Chad:
It sounds like it, yeah?
Jeanette:
But it does, which is why I'm like, we can't. So we've been around actually almost 25 years. So we're a bit old school, but we're a recruiting enablement platform. We have a sign right behind-
Chad:
She's actually reading the banner by the way.
Jeanette:
I literally am reading the banner.
Joel:
That literally means nothing.
Jeanette:
It means nothing.
Joel:
Recruitment enablement platform.
Jeanette:
Yeah. Well, okay so, let's think about sales enablement, right?
Joel:
Where intelligence meets velocity, which means less to me. It's helped me out. I'm not the smartest cat.
Jeanette:
Are you sure about that?
Joel:
I'm totally sure about that.
Chad:
I can validate.
Joel:
I'm not the sharpest.
Jeanette:
We'll bring this down.
Chad:
Okay.
Jeanette:
So, what's Oleeo? Recruiting enabling platform. We help-
Joel:
What's that mean?
Jeanette:
Full suite platform-
Joel:
One stop shop.
Jeanette:
One stop shop-
Joel:
So you're an ATS?
Jeanette:
Everything from... Yeah.... We're ATS, we said it. Event management, CRM, interview scheduling-
Chad:
Really?
Jeanette:
With a whole overlay. Wait for it. Intelligent [crosstalk 00:05:05] automation with the buzzwords of AI as well.
Chad:
Oh, instead of AI... Okay, I got ya.
Joel:
So you're going to be my career site applicant tracking system-
Jeanette:
We can do the whole thing.
Joel:
Scheduling... Events-
Jeanette:
But our sweet spot of what we really focus on is high volume. So when we say high volume, it might be...
Joel:
Retail...
Jeanette:
Retail. World's largest retailer-
Joel:
Warehouse-
Jeanette:
Might use us for things.
Chad:
So what makes you so good at high volume?
Jeanette:
That was what we were founded on was actually way back in 25 years. Campus recruiting is all about high volume. We're great at hiring that same profile candidates over and over and not five, ten, but hundreds of thousands. So we built from the ground up-
Chad:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Jeanette:
Something for transaction hundreds of thousands-
Joel:
I feel like in that two minutes. We came up with a better booth than what you have now.
Chad:
That's why we're here.
Jeanette:
We just hired new global head of marketing.
Chad:
Oh yeah?
Joel:
And make sure they listen to this.
Chad:
Let's break these components down though-
Jeanette:
Yes, let's do it-
Chad:
Because talk about a total.
Joel:
You are everything Chad is against, the one stop shop.
Chad:
Oh no, I'm not against it. I just don't believe in it. See, yeah. I believe that you should go after... I believe in choice-
Joel:
I'm not against it. I just don't believe in it.
Chad:
I just believe in choice, but yet-
Jeanette:
Yes, choice is good.
Chad:
If you can modularize it, which it sounds like you can. I'm all for that shit.
Jeanette:
So we're great.
Chad:
Yeah.
Jeanette:
It's perfect.
Chad:
But trying to shoehorn everybody into a specific one. [crosstalk 00:06:30].
Joel:
Jack of all trades and master of nothing.
Jeanette:
Yeah, you can't do that.
Joel:
With your model.
Jeanette:
No, we're actually really focused.
Joel:
You're a master of all.
Jeanette:
We're a master of that high volume, hourly-
Chad:
The high volume, okay-
Jeanette:
Or like the professional at campus recruiting. So, whether you're [crosstalk 00:06:44] hiring all those... So again, [crosstalk 00:06:46] same profile.
Joel:
So, now we're talking, now we're getting down to the nuts and bolts here.
Jeanette:
Now we're getting more into like substance, yeah-
Chad:
So break it down.
Jeanette:
So that's what we're really good at.
Chad:
So, job distribution. Do you have a programmatic play here?
Jeanette:
We do. We do it through partners. We do have the programmatic play. That's new part. Integrating with that piece.
Chad:
Okay.
Jeanette:
Yeah. I mean, you have to now.
Joel:
Talk about the events management. Are people still doing events? Is that still a thing?
Jeanette:
Yes.
Joel:
So what do you guys do for a company, is it job fairs or...
Jeanette:
Yes. So, well, right now today, Grace Hopper, the celebration is happening in Orlando, which is a huge women tech event career fair. Huge. So, anyways... So yes, people are doing... Especially diversity... Diversity, career fairs are huge. This month there's tons of that going on. We were just at the national black MBA diversity career fair... Let's see, was that last week? So-
Joel:
So you're telling about your tour. I want to know what you guys actually do to help companies in an event.
Jeanette:
You go to one of these big career fairs, or if you're hosting one of your own, you have hundreds upon thousands of candidates... Just like here on the X ball here... Well there's not hundreds of thousands of buyers, but if there were, they would be lining up with their resumes. Every candidate gets to go and talk to someone and they have the paper and it's like, "Okay, well how do you as a recruiter..." Or you have your hiring managers or whoever there... How do they deal with that massive volume? How do you get rid of that paper and then get them in, in a systematic way into your technology? So, that's what we do. We help get everyone, use QR code, go in tech, it's all that.
Joel:
Oh man, did you just say QR code?
Jeanette:
I did. We actually have one. We do.
Chad:
That works at a job fair.
Joel:
You lost me.
Jeanette:
I lost it.
Chad:
That works at a job fair.
Jeanette:
It does-
Joel:
Does it?
Chad:
Yeah.
Jeanette:
And you know what's good about that?
Joel:
How many have to download an app-
Jeanette:
No, you don't-
Joel:
To scan your QR codes?
Jeanette:
So, okay, you pull out your... Do you have an iPhone?
Joel:
I do.
Jeanette:
Okay, so your... If you go to take a picture, you just open up your photo picture and you can do it over and it pops it open automatically.
Chad:
We'll get back to the interview in a minute. But first, we have a question for Andy Katz, COO of Nexxt.
Joel:
For long time. It seems like we were burying events, but it seems like there's a Renaissance in the event sector. Talk about that.
Andy:
Let's break that into two things. There's the physical events and then there's our virtual events and they're two vastly different avenues. So, what I see in the industry and where things are going to is more virtual events because they're easier to host. Then you have companies that are doing mass hiring events. I mean they're in the news all the time. They're hiring 100,000 people during a seasonal recruiting. Those are physical events where people walk in, they're already pre-qualified in a lot of cases. They walk in, they interview for a very little amount of time, 15 to 20 minutes... Could do the job and they're hired on demand. So, I think in the time where the economy in general is changing to that on demand gig, overnight delivery, two day delivery, three day delivery. It's more important to hire at a faster pace than ever. And the hiring events, whether it is virtual or physical event is the quickest way to do those these days.
Chad:
For more information, go to hiring.nexxt.com. Remember that's Nexxt with the double X, not the triple X. Hiring.nexxt.com.
Joel:
So, what else? What other products are we talking about? We covered events.
Jeanette:
Cover events-
Joel:
ATS. Do you rate-
Jeanette:
Interview scheduling-
Joel:
Candidates?
Jeanette:
We do-
Joel:
Okay how does-
Jeanette:
We do a whole... We have a whole prescriptive analytics piece to use another buzzword. They're rolling their [crosstalk 00:10:12] eyes a little bit.
Chad:
Perscriptive?
Jeanette:
Yeah.
Chad:
Perscriptive.
Jeanette:
Prescriptive.
Chad:
What does that mean?
Jeanette:
Or predictive?
Chad:
Predictive. Okay, so-
Jeanette:
It's both... Recommendation-
Joel:
The tech guy just gave you the stink eye [crosstalk 00:10:20] when you messed that up.
Jeanette:
No. So that's-
Chad:
Perscriptive.
Jeanette:
Perscriptive.
Joel:
He gave you the stink eye-
Jeanette:
No he didn't.
Chad:
Yeah. I'd give her the stink eye too.
Joel:
How did she get to be CEO?
Chad:
Yeah I'd give her a stink eye too.
Jeanette:
That managing director.
Joel:
I can fix that-
Jeanette:
I like to call recommendations. So we have... Okay, I'm going to say a buzzword, but a whole AI data science, because we work with our customers.
Chad:
Is that yours? Are you building that or is that a partnership?
Jeanette:
We are building that.
Chad:
Okay.
Jeanette:
We have a team of data scientists. We have a whole partnership with University College London. They have a whole office out in the UK and so we've worked really closely with them to build these algorithms that actually optimize quality.
Chad:
Yeah.
Jeanette:
But putting the guard rails on diversity as well to make sure there's... Minimize the unconscious bias that happens. So...
Joel:
Did you say guard rails?
Jeanette:
I did say guardrails. I did, I did!
Joel:
I use those when I bowl.
Jeanette:
Well, right, so again it helps you to make sure that you know, you don't get a gutter ball... So you don't have a biased process.
Chad:
It makes sense.
Jeanette:
You need guard rails.
Chad:
But still, we have humans involved, there's going to be bias.
Jeanette:
There's going to be bias.
Chad:
Right?
Jeanette:
Right, [crosstalk 00:11:29] so we can minimize it.
Chad:
Okay. So, you are... How are you minimizing? Do you have a blind kind of thing?
Jeanette:
So it's actually an... It's actually started going... And I'll slightly geek out a little bit, so...
Chad:
Okay, go ahead. No that's what I want to hear.
Jeanette:
So we take... So if anyone knows the Four-Fifths rule of selection with the EOC and the government side-
Chad:
Yep.
Jeanette:
They're like, okay... So, we ensure that the algorithms meet that Four-Fifths rule. So, any recommendations that we're making... It's going to meet that Four-Fifths rule. And so, at least whatever that recommendation, it's... You're going to be covered from a compliance standpoint. I was talking to someone earlier about compliance. It's not totally sexy, but at least you have that piece while optimizing for quality. So we're doing both at the same time.
Chad:
Okay.
Joel:
So what's new and exciting when we come see you next year at this show? What is going to be the hot thing you're talking about?
Chad:
They're going to have a new name and colors.
Jeanette:
We're going to stick with Oleeo... At least another 25 years. And we liked the colors so we're good there. So, actually we're flipping the whole recommendation piece. So, right now it's for recruiters and employers, but now we're going to flip it and we figured, "Hey we can help candidates and recommend they can go to the..."
Joel:
Is this like a matching recommendation kind of a thing?
Jeanette:
It's not matching, it's not that old school mat... Where it was like fill out the survey.
Joel:
But you are scoring?
Jeanette:
It's scoring but it's literally based on an evolutionary algorithm.
Joel:
Isn't scoring based on matches?
Jeanette:
Sure.
Joel:
So you are matching.
Jeanette:
I guess you technically could say that, but not really.
Chad:
So, technically are you parsing data and then matching against your actual AI algorithm to match candidates to jobs?
Jeanette:
So yeah... I think that... Yeah, looking at what... What's interesting with the algorithm... It's not just taking, let's say, who was successful. It looks at... We can take all different things whether who are successful being interviewed and ultimately hired? What's the performance management data? What's like an assessment score test? We look at all that, and again it goes into this... This is where I'm so not techie, the data science environment, and then looks for the best... I don't know, I guess you could say match or best one that's going to give the best recommendation with those diversity guard rails.
Chad:
Guard rails.
Jeanette:
With the guardrails.
Chad:
For bowling.
Jeanette:
So, I guess you could say matching, I don't know. My new head of marketing might like that word, might not.
Joel:
Tomato, tomato.
Jeanette:
Right.
Joel:
You know?
Jeanette:
So... Yeah, sure.
Joel:
It's just like everybody's doing like either the AI matching-
Jeanette:
Right, and they're doing... What's the... Yeah, what's our angle versus everyone else?
Joel:
Or, ZipRecruiter has a recommender engine, right? So it's, yeah.
Jeanette:
Yeah.
Joel:
But it's still a AI, right?
Jeanette:
Yeah. What's interesting is that we focus on, again... What we're really good at is when someone has a high volume, same profile, and then, because we've had... We have a long history in campus recruiting early career. So, we're really good at doing that when a candidate doesn't have a lot of experience... There's college kids, there's only so much.
Chad:
So here's a question. Job is posted. You pushing out via programmatic, somebody goes through and, and applies or they're engaged, right? Just say they're engaged. How long does it take for me to get that candidate to schedule an interview?
Jeanette:
So, we have one customer, then it happens as they've applied right then and there, they click
submit, and if they right then and there can schedule themselves for an interview.
Chad:
So right there.
Jeanette:
So next day.
Chad:
In minutes.
Jeanette:
And they could... Yeah. And the next day they can go in for an interview. We have Marks and Spencer UK retailer three days to literally walk into our higher store associate. They get seasonal workers.
Chad:
Yeah?
Jeanette:
Yeah. Five minutes for every hire.
Chad:
See, so right there. That's-
Jeanette:
Cool.
Chad:
What's Oleeo?
Jeanette:
That's Oleeo.
Chad:
That's Oleeo.
Jeanette:
That's Oleeo.
Chad:
Right? Not this stuff that I can't understand [crosstalk 00:15:05].
Joel:
Want us to be your marketing team?
Chad:
Yeah.
Jeanette:
Sure.
Joel:
Call up this girl, you hired and just tell her.
Jeanette:
Done. We're bringing Chad and Cheese on.
Joel:
You're making it difficult for us.
Chad:
So, on the diversity play... I mean you guys are very heavy on diversity, not just the EEO Four-Fifths, right? But-
Jeanette:
Absolutely.
Chad:
So, why has that always been a commitment? Why is that a commitment for you guys? Why is it so important?
Jeanette:
That's a good question. I mean, we've all seen research, a Harvard business review. I love... Big geek reading that. Last year they had four diverse teams or 400 times more innovative than on diverse team. And so, we really... Our CEO and founder who is still our CEO, founder, majority shareholder... He truly believes in the power of diversity, diverse thinking and that and even look around in our team. So, Sunday, again our new head of marketing comes in, meets a whole team and she's like, "Whoa, you guys are really diverse," and we have a whole crew out in London and looking around from age, religion, race. And so it actually is like... We really believe in that. So, we figured, "Hey, if we can help our customers..." And again, this does sound a little cheesy-
Chad:
So you eat your own dog food.
Jeanette:
We really do. So almost half of our global leadership team are female.
Chad:
But, it's really hard because all these companies are saying they embrace diversity and they put out these press releases that are warm and fuzzy and full of bullshit and they're not fulling outcomes. So how do you get past that?
Jeanette:
Well, I mean it's a challenge. I won't say like, "Oh, it's an easy thing." It's explaining, "Hey, this is how we do it. We put up some of these guardrails. You're not going to solve this overnight. It's going to take a while. Again, let's start at one spot. Okay, you're not going to solve all your company and world's problems in a day." And so, to me it's just like taking each step each day. So... And over time it'll start to change.
Joel:
You hope you grind... Grit it out. Right? Just grinding...
Jeanette:
Yeah. Slow burn.
Joel:
Where are you from?
Jeanette:
New Jersey.
Joel:
I was going to say... We got a total...
Jeanette:
I'm a Jersey girl, but I'm living in New York. I've been in New York for, I don't know, 27 years. So... Which is why I'm dressed almost in all black.
Chad:
So you're seeing a ton of tech here and we were talking about our session. There's a ton of noise here. How do you guys cut through the noise?
Jeanette:
We're working through that. I mean, I think there's a... Yeah... Dorsey's a piece of it. But it's hard. I mean it's... That's hard. That's a challenge. I think everyone's trying to figure that out and we don't listen, we're relatively unknown. Like you even said, "Who's Oleeo?" So, we need to... We're trying to figure that out. How do we cut through? How do we get more known? So, we have amazing customers, really big brands, marquee enterprise customers, but still relatively unknown.
Joel:
So on that note, once again, for our listeners who don't know you and want to find out more, where do they go?
Jeanette:
Go to Oleo, O-L-E-E-O.com.
Joel:
Thanks for sitting down with us, Jeanette. Thank you.
Chad:
Thank you.
Jeanette:
Thanks guys.
Chad:
We out.
Joel:
We out.
OUTRO:
This has been the Chad and Cheese podcast. Subscribe on iTunes, Google play, or wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss a single show. And be sure to check out our sponsors because they make it all possible for more visit chadcheese.com. Oh yeah, you're welcome.